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UEFA chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina has highlighted the message given by UEFA to Europe's top referees as they enter a new club and national-team season. Protect the players – protect the image of the game. This is the message being given by UEFA to Europe's international referees as they move into another hectic season of club and national-team duty.

UEFA's chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina spelt out the message at UEFA's European football kick-off events in Monaco. He also underlined the overall satisfaction with the ongoing experiment with two additional assistant referees, and highlighted the December date with destiny for Europe's elite match officials as they strive to be appointed for next summer's UEFA EURO 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Protecting the players, Collina said, meant taking action against serious foul play and reckless tackles. "We do not want to see broken legs," the Italian emphasised. "We have to avoid the potential for a player to see his health endangered by someone else. We do not need doctors on the pitch. We have to convince players not to put the safety of an opponent in danger. Respecting opponents and protecting players is one of our main objectives. "The other main aim is to protect football's image," Collina added. "We don't want to see referees mobbed by players. We are experiencing situations where players run from a long distance to put pressure on and crowd the referee. We are recommending referees not to accept this kind of behaviour." The message has been reiterated to the referees at this week's UEFA summer gathering in Nyon. Collina also spoke of the punishment that faces players who deliberately provoke a yellow card to receive a suspension. "Players will receive a two-match ban," he stressed. "This is clear – you cannot decide when you want to be suspended."

The experiment with additional assistant referees continues this season in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, and the two additional assistants will also be deployed at UEFA EURO 2012. "Very positive feedback has been received from the referees," Collina said. "They feel they have a better control of what is happening on the pitch, and that the presence of the additional assistants is serving as a deterrent against holding or pulling offences in the penalty area from set pieces." As with any experiment, improvements are being sought constantly – the positioning of the additional assistants has been changed, and special efforts are being made to make the public more aware of the role of these assistants.

Moreover, Collina explained the UEFA refereeing set-up. The UEFA Referees Committee, he said, comprises 16 members appointed by the UEFA Executive Committee. Chairman Ángel María Villar Llona and deputy chairman Şenes Erzik are both members of the UEFA Executive Committee and all the other members are former referees. In February 2010, the UEFA Executive Committee appointed Collina as UEFA chief refereeing officer, and Marc Bata (France) and Hugh Dallas (Scotland) as refereeing officers with the task of coordinating UEFA Referees Committee activities, defining UEFA's refereeing technical strategies, and preparing and appointing referees for UEFA competitions.

Referee preparation, meanwhile, involves three main areas – physical, technical, and development and future. Referees receive training programmes, nutrition instructions and advice, and their fitness levels are subject to remote monitoring. Fitness tests throughout the season and medical examinations complete the thorough catalogue of activities – including a visual ability test to ensure that referees can 'fix a vision', take an 'instant photograph' of an incident, focus on close or moving objects and react to movements around them. The referees are also regularly followed by UEFA Referees Committee members and observers for assessment and coaching reasons. Courses are held for different referee levels, and development and future activities include the talents and mentors scheme, as well as training at UEFA's Centre of Refereeing Excellence (CORE) within the UEFA Centre of Football Excellence in Nyon.

The refereeing teams for UEFA EURO 2012 will be chosen in December. "Referees from the UEFA elite category will be monitored until then, the list of the 12 selected quintets of match officials will be finalised in December, and the selected match officials will then be monitored from February until May 2012," said Collina. "The selected quintets will work together." A EURO preparation workshop will be held in Warsaw next May, and the assistant referees are set to receive specialist coaching.

Victory in September’s vote for the Czech FA chair would make Dagmar Damkova the first woman in Europe to hold such a lofty post.

Dagmar Damkova is a genuine pioneer. In 2003, she became the first female official to referee a Czech men’s top-flight soccer league game. This July, she became the first woman appointed to the referees commission of European football’s governing body UEFA. Now the 36-year-old is aiming higher still, standing for the position of chair of the Czech football association (FA). If she wins, she will be the first woman in Europe to hold such a powerful post.

Damkova has needed considerable fortitude to get to where she is today. In fact, the former English teacher says in her early days in men’s soccer she found the verbal abuse from both players and fans almost impossible to bear. She would occasionally break down in tears and considered quitting. “At the beginning it was very hard. I was the only woman, and they looked at me like, ‘what do you think you’re doing here? You should be in the kitchen,’” the ground-breaking ref told Czech Position. Damkova’s only choice was to persevere and prove that she was just as capable as her male colleagues. “I began to hear people saying ‘we should have all female refs!’” she says. “The players began to behave differently — that’s what changed over the years.”

However, it has not been all plain sailing, with one low point coming in the second half of the 2006–2007 season when, for apparently political reasons, she was struck off the Czech FA’s list of top flight refs. Nevertheless, Damkováas reputation continued to grow abroad and she was put in charge of such prestigious matches as the women’s final at the Beijing Olympics (“the greatest moment of my career”) and this year’s women’s UEFA Champions League final.Damkova’s international career reached a new peak in July, when she became the first woman — and the first Czech — ever appointed to UEFA’s 15-member referees commission. The body’s first meeting is taking place in the Swiss town of Nyon this Monday, and she says it is not entirely clear what her responsibilities will be, though the signs are she will oversee women’s refereeing in Europe and all refereeing in the Czech league. She will continue to live in her hometown Plzen Winning the prestigious post means Damkova has had to hang up her boots. After the final game of her career in early August, between Mlada Boleslav and Slovacko, both teams lined up to kiss her for good luck (one cheeky player asked her to swap jerseys). “No other ref will ever have such a send-off,” she says.

However, no sooner had Damkova been awarded the UEFA position than she announced her boldest ambition yet: to stand for chair of the Czech FA, following the shock resignation in June of Ivan Hasek, who was only two years into a four-year term. “I want to help improve the reputation of Czech football abroad. Because the name of Czech football is very, very bad,” says Damkováa adding that frequent changes at the head of the country’s FA are regarded as “crazy” by officials at FIFA, which oversees world soccer, and UEFA. “It’s very important to have an FA president who is well-known, and who has contacts at UEFA and FIFA,” she says, outlining her qualifications for the post. “If you do not have contacts, you are a loser.”

Nevertheless, eyebrows have been raised by Damkova’s candidature. There have been suggestions that if elected, the popular referee could in fact serve as a puppet in the hands of her boyfriend Roman Berbr, the powerful head of the Plzeň branch of the FA. Damkova bristles at this idea. “We are partners, and we live together. But I am an individual, and I am responsible for myself,” she says. “It is the same with refereeing. At the beginning, of course he helped me. But then I achieved everything by myself, thanks to my own qualities and skills.”

Delegates at a Czech FA extraordinary general meeting on September 16 will choose between Damkova, the organization’s former deputy chairman, Jindrich Rajchl (who is also reported to be close to Berbr) and Miroslav Pelta, the owner of Jablonec FC. Damkova has also put her name in the ring for the position of deputy chair, leading Pelta to imply that his opponents may be working in tandem with a view to dividing the spoils. Meanwhile, Damkova says it is not yet clear whether she would be able to hold a top Czech FA post and retain her place on the UEFA commission and that she will discuss the matter in Nyon.
In any case, Damkova says she still has plans beyond the Czech Republic. “I’ve had some contact with FIFA and have had a few meetings with them. We’ll see what happens in the future – maybe I could get something on the executive committee,” she says. “Both [FIFA president Sepp] Blatter and [UEFA president Michel] Platini want women to be on the committees. Now it is just the green light for women, so I feel like I have got a good chance.”

Players who mob referees to protest against decisions could face instant red cards in the future, according to UEFA's Chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina. He revealed there would be tougher action than ever when players surrounded officials. The Italian said: "We don't want to see referees mobbed by players, where players run from long distances to crowd the ref. This could even be punished by a red card. Certainly one of the things we need to improve is stopping this kind of behaviour. It's not nice to see.''

Collina said that referees in the two European club competitions were being aided by the extra assistant referees standing behind each dead-ball line, and that serious foul play would not be tolerated. He added: "Referees have been instructed to protect the players. We don't need doctors on the pitch. We do not want to be in a situation where we have broken legs. Better to convince the players to stop before. "Look what happened to Eduardo a few years ago. It was shocking and was not football. If there is a serious risk to endanger the safety of an opponent, this has to be removed before there is actual damage.''

Collina also revealed that former English assistant referee Philip Sharp will conduct a workshop in Poland before Euro 2012 to provide special training for the 12 quintets of officials who will take charge at the tournament.

Pride in his achievements and confidence in his ability are major sensations for Bjorn Kuipers as the Dutch referee looks ahead to taking charge of Friday's UEFA Super Cup between UEFA Champions League holders FC Barcelona and UEFA Europa League winners FC Porto at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Kuipers will be accompanied on his assignment by a team of compatriots – assistant referees Erwin Zeinstra and Berry Simons, fourth official Bas Nijhuis and additional assistant referees Richard Liesveld and Danny Makkelie.
"It's a wonderful surprise – when the appointment for the Super Cup match came, I was very happy," Kuipers told UEFA.com. "When I'm lining up with the teams before Friday's game, I will be proud and thinking how fantastic it is to be here." The 38-year-old supermarket owner from Oldenzaal in the eastern Netherlands joined the international list in 2006 and has already compiled some impressive achievements. If his first steps up the international ladder in his first year culminated in him refereeing the final of the 2006 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, he repeated the feat at the U21 Championship in 2009. More recently he officiated at one play-off match, two group stage games and a round of 16 fixture in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League, and also handled three UEFA Europa League matches last season, including the semi-final first leg between Porto and Villarreal CF. Yet for Kuipers, whose club record is no less eye-catching, his appointment for Friday's showpiece event in Monaco represents a new zenith. It also rewards his efforts since taking the plunge as a match official aged 16 after, like many referees, he had started out as a footballer. "My father was a referee," he said, "and when I was on the pitch as a player, I was the guy who always knew better than the referee! So my father said that if I knew everything so well, maybe I should try being a referee. And that's what I did. "I never thought about reaching this level because it was a hobby then – but everything I want to do, I like to aim to reach the top," added Kuipers, who is married with two young children – a two-year-old son and six-year-old daughter. "I've never really had a role model, although I obviously appreciate various referees and their different styles. I don't think it's good to copy anyone."

Concentration is a vital component of a referee's armoury, and Kuipers insists on the absolute need to remain completely focused on the job from the opening whistle to the final instant. "It's obviously important to make the correct first decision in a match to gain confidence," he explained, "but it's not only the first minute in a match that is important – it's the entire match. As a referee at this level, you can have a very good match as a referee but you can then make a mistake in the last minute – so you have to concentrate throughout the game." While Friday is a big moment in the lives of Kuipers and his colleagues, the nature of their profession means they will approach the occasion with customary thoroughness. "Our preparation will be the same as for other matches, as professionals we will not treat it any differently." Those preparations will include a "team" meeting before the trip to the stadium. "Then, when we are in the dressing rooms, we will be relaxed, there will be a good atmosphere – and we will be strong for each other when we go out on to the field."

UEFA has appointed the match officials for the 2011UEFA Super Cup tie between UEFA Champions League holders FC Barcelona and UEFA Europa League winners FC Porto at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Bjorn Kuipers, a 38-year-old official from Oldenzaal who has been an international referee since 2006, has taken charge of 43 UEFA matches in his career. Last season in the UEFA Champions League he handled one play-off match, two group stage games and a round of 16 fixture. Kuipers also oversaw three UEFA Europa League matches in 2010-2011, including the semi-final first leg between Porto and Villarreal CF. Previously he refereed the finals of the 2006 UEFA European U-17 Championship and the 2009 U-21 European Championship.

After surgery for a torn meniscus, doctors who attended the international referee from Paraguay found a more serious injury, so Carlos Torres will undergo another surgery and will miss the rest of the year. The drama of Carlos Torres Nunez (Paraguay) does not seem to finish. In May, he suffered meniscus tear in his right knee, so he underwent surgery almost immediately. His recovery for this type of intervention was about a month, so he thought would come on time to represent Paraguay in Copa America. Unfortunately, he did not pass the fitness tests and was replaced by his rival, Carlos Amarilla. Three months after that operation, Torres met with another problem. "It's something new from the standpoint that I'm aware, but it's also something old, caused by a worn cartillage, which gives me much pain. Training is practically impossible. It was discovered after the operation of the rupture of the meniscus, which may have resulted from the bad footing”, he explained. The referee also said it will only be solved with another surgery that will happen in the late fall or winter. Because of that, he is in danger of being removed from the FIFA List for next year.

At his very first FIFA tournament, Mark Geiger (USA) has been appointed to referee the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Brazil - Portugal. Geiger has been a member of the FIFA List of Referees since 2008, officiating in Major League Soccer, the CONCACAF Champions League and several international friendly matches. The 36-year-old American began officiating in 1988 and became a National Referee in 2003. Geiger’s international refereeing resume includes the 2011 CONCACAF U-20 Championship in which he officiated the final match between Mexico and Costa Rica.

Czech Dagmar Damkova has recently joined the UEFA Referees Committee as the first woman in history. UEFA and FIFA rules do not enable a committee member to be an active referee in matches played within UEFA and FIFA competititons. As a result, Damkova, 36, gave up her career as an active referee after the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup played this summer in Germany.

On the International List since 1999, Dagmar Damkova was one of the best female referees in the world, having refereed the 2008 Olympic Games final and the 2009 UEFA Women’s Euro final. She also officiated at the FIFA Women’s World Cups 2007 and 2011, the FIFA Women’s U-20 World Cups 2006 and 2010, as well as the 2011 UEFA Women’s Champions League final. Damkova has joined the UEFA Referees Committee on 1 July 2011 and is expected to be in charge of the European women's refereeing.

Sian Massey, the assistant referee at the centre of the Sky Sports sexism row, has been promoted to the Select Group of match officials. The move means that the 25-year-old from Coventry will now run the line at more high profile games in the Premier League and the FA Cup on a regular basis. She has been a FIFA Assistant Referee since 2010 and was involved in the qualification stage for the FIFA Women's World Cup, as well as the UEFA Champions League.

Massey unwittingly found herself embroiled in a huge scandal last year which eventually saw Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray and presenter Richard Keys leave the company. Microphones picked up comments made by Keys and co-presenter Gray in what they thought was an off-air conversation before a match between Wolves Liverpool where Massey was acting as a lineswoman. In the now infamous recording, Keys and Gray appeared to agree that female officials "don't know the offside rule", with Keys adding: "I can guarantee you there'll be a big one today. Kenny (Dalglish) will go potty." After further allegations emerged, Gray was sacked from his position while Keys resigned.

The Daily Mail reports that Massey will continue to work the lines at matches, but will not referee them even though she is a qualified referee. Massey is currently on holiday but will start working on games next month.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee, under the chairmanship of Marcel Mathier (Switzerland), met on 9 August 2011, to examine two cases, one related to the official Lisle Austin (Barbados), and the other related to the match officials Sinisa Zrnic (photo), Kenan Bajramovic and Rizah Ridalovic (from Bosnia-Herzegovina), and Kolos Lengyel, Janos Csak and Krisztian Selmeczi (from Hungary).

In the first case, the committee decided to ban Lisle Austin (member of the FIFA Referees Committee) from taking part in any football-related activity for a period of one year for lodging a claim related to football matters in front of the ordinary courts in the Bahamas, constituting a breach of art. 64 par. 2 of the FIFA Statutes. The Disciplinary Committee also decided that should Lisle Austin not withdraw the claim lodged in front of the ordinary courts in the Bahamas definitively and irrevocably, he will remain banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level in accordance with art. 22 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code for as long as the legal proceedings in ordinary courts are pursued.
Meanwhile, the six match officials (Sinisa Zrnic, Kenan Bajramovic, Rizah Ridalovic, Kolos Lengyel, Janos Csak and Krisztian Selmeczi) have all been banned from taking part in any kind of football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at national and international level for life. The officials were found guilty of breaching art. 62 par. 2 (passive corruption) and art. 69 par. 1 (unlawfully influencing match results) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. The breach was committed in relation to the international “A” friendly matches Bolivia-Latvia and Estonia-Bulgaria played in Antalya (Turkey) on 9 February 2011.

Portuguese media reports say international referee Pedro Proenca was attacked late Monday in Lisbon. The Portuguese news agency Lusa says an individual struck Proenca in the head while he was in a shopping center, breaking two of his teeth. Police reportedly arrested the aggressor and Proenca later filed charges.

The 40-year-old Pedro Proenca refereed Porto's win over Guimaraes in the Portuguese Supercup earlier this week and last season's Champions League semifinal between Manchester United and Schalke. Proenca was ranked as the best referee in the Portuguese league by the Portuguese football federation last season.

Gabor Eros (Hungary) was Viktor Kassai’s assistant in the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Between these two high-level competitions, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and last October had a long (over 7 hours) and difficult surgery. It seemed that things have returned to normal, but tests conducted this summer revealed that the disease was not fully eliminated. Most likely, he would need a kidney transplant, which costs a lot of money, even for a World Cup assistant referee.

In order to get the money needed for a transplant, Gabor Eros has auctioned (see here) a referee shirt from the 2011 Champions League Final with the autographs of all match officials. Referee Viktor Kassai donated his cards used in the UCL final Barcelona - Manchester United, also with the autographs of the match officials. The auction will run until 16 August 2011.